As a reward to his ‘patriotic’ boycott of visiting Pakistan
Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, a Shiv Sena delegation honoured Ajmer Dargah
diwan Zainul Abedin Ali Khan. After receiving a sword and a shawl as token of
respect, the holy man reportedly spoke to Uddhav Thackeray on phone and invited
him to the Dargah.
What puzzles me is that someone who claimed moral high
ground to protest a single atrocity of Pakistan has no qualms in hobnobbing
with a right-wing outfit that has used hatred and violence throughout its
growth. Wonder what migrants from his state who were beaten up by Shiv Sena,
and later MNS, goons for hurting job prospects of Marathi manoos.
Uddhav-Diwan bonhomie brings up some disturbing examples of
politics of religion.
It is an open secret that several human gods and goddesses
and their ‘charitable’ business are the biggest centres of money laundering.
There have been several incidents of powerful godmen, who ran their empires for
decades with total impunity from laws of the land, suddenly becoming targets
for criminal investigations when they fall out with their political
benefactors.
People who issues fatwas at the drop of a hat and instigate
mobs to burn vehicles for insult to their religion in the US maintain deafening
silence of barbaric social evils prevalent in the community under the guise of
personal law — abuse of women being the most prominent. However, they find
friends in politicians of all hues who endorse their ‘leadership’ in return for
en masse votes.
Then there are the self-proclaimed ‘super patriots’ who will
drive master artists to exile for insulting gods by making their nude
paintings. No... they are not aware of thousands of sculptures that have been
in existence for centuries that show gods in the nude. Their splinter
organisations disrupt fashion shows for denigrating women by parading them in
skimpy clothes. However, when it comes to dealing with sexual violence against
women, they go into denial mode.
Oops... my bad. The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat
did say rapes occur in the country. Rapes take place in India and not in Bharat,
the saffron knight said. May be the rapes that take place in villages are part
of an ISI conspiracy.
Our leaders were ‘shocked and outraged’ when Yasin Malik
shared dais with Hafiz Sayeed in Pakistan, but why is there no similar anger or
reaction when Sikh terrorists are conferred honours and declared martyrs by top
religious bodies. Beant Singh’s killers have been on the death row for ever now
but we don’t see any hurried hush-hush hanging.
To conclude let’s go to, ironically, God’s Own Country. A
prominent Christian denomination’s top leader couldn’t stop speaking out in
support of PJ Kurien, who is in the eye of a storm over the latest revelations
by the Suryanelli rape case victim. There were also media reports of the
victim’s church asking the family to stop coming to the church. Kerala’s
swearing-by-god Congress and swearing-by-Marx CPI(M) try to outdo each other in
pleasing religious leaders to secure vote banks.
We might call ourselves secular and democratic in the
Constitution’s preamble. However, the toxic cocktail of politics and religion
has reduced adherence to its principles to mere lip service, and we stand
failed as a nation.
(This article was published as the editorial column in
Postnoon on March 13, 2013.)
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